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Design matters

By MICHAEL CANNING
Published March 17, 2006

Yes, Rojo Architecture's logo is red. And yes, Spanish is commonly spoken in these parts.

But Rojo isn't pronounced ROW-ho. Instead it rhymes with "mojo.''

As in, Rojo is getting its mojo working on the South Tampa development scene. Since 2004, Rojo's distinctive red square logo has appeared at eight construction sites throughout South Tampa. Another will appear at a pending Ybor City development.

Besides, Rojo's founders are Rob Glisson - the "ro'' - and John Saldana - the "jo.''

Logos and word play aside, Glisson and Saldana have another way they want to distinguish their company.

"It's not that we're against Mediterranean,'' said Saldana, referring to the Mediterranean revival architectural style that dominates South Tampa development, often in watered-down form. "But you need to have the sensibility and the budget to do it right. Nowadays people add a piece of trim here, some stucco there, and some tile, and voila, it's Mediterranean.''

Only one of Rojo's recent South Tampa projects, La Encantada in Historic Hyde Park, is Mediterranean style. Contemporary, Neo-Plasticism, Bauhaus, federal, neoclassical and Spanish mission influence the others' designs.

"They always challenge us on how the project will figure into the community,'' said Highpoint Development president James Landers, with whom Rojo has designed several projects.

"Every one of our developments is different, and Rojo has been a big part of that.''

Indeed, Glisson said encouraging the client to consider a building's environment, and not just the building, is part of the process. "It's about doing what's right for the neighborhood, both scalewise and stylewise,'' Glisson said.

The company formed in 1998 after Saldana and Glisson left jobs at other local architectural firms, where they occasionally worked together on projects.

They and two employees operated out of a 168-square-foot office on Seventh Avenue in Ybor City before moving to a bigger space in Tampa Palms in 1999.

Rojo's staff increased to seven as humble house renovations gave way to higher profile jobs in Old Carrollwood and Avila. Those and a steady portfolio of church designs, all of them outside the bay area, kept Rojo rolling.

The nascent firm was barely settled into its subleased Tampa Palms office before it was forced to leave. In 2000, Rojo landed space inside a townhome at Sailwinds at Lake Magdalene apartments on Fletcher Avenue while redesigning the clubhouse.

Within a year, Rojo moved to the Netpark office park at 56th Street and Hillsborough Avenue. In 2002, Jonathan Moore came on as another principal. Last December the team moved to a bigger Netpark space two doors down, where there's now a staff of 28.

Saldana and Glisson decided to pursue more Tampa area projects after they lost a key church client in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Before long, Rojo was landing medical office and townhome projects, many of them in South Tampa's accelerating real estate market.

Rojo's profile also rose. Rojo signs posted at South Tampa project sites garnered more phone calls than at other sites, Saldana said. "The exposure has been pretty much exponential,'' he said.

Glisson and Saldana intend to plant more Rojo signs across South Tampa.

"Absolutely,'' Glisson said. "South Tampa has some varied texture to it already. So you're starting with a good community. That in general means you have to build a better product in order to compete.''

Saldana says: "The movers and the shakers live and play there. So where else do you want to showcase your work?''

Saldana faced that very question in 1994 after coming to Tampa for the first time to visit his brother and his family. He had graduated three years earlier from the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores in his native Monterrey, Mexico, where he had developed a home design practice.

He visited Old Hyde Park Village, then Ybor City. He liked what he saw. Even the humidity agreed with his asthma.

"Something just clicked,'' he said.

Within days of arriving, Saldana decided to move to Tampa, and before long set about acclimating himself to the customs and rules of the American architectural industry.

Glisson, a 1988 graduate of Auburn University, had already cycled through a few architect firms in Tampa before he and Saldana met while both were working for United Concepts in St. Petersburg.

Saldana, 36 and single, now lives in an old fourplex apartment building in Historic Hyde Park but plans to buy a house in Lowry Park North and renovate it. Glisson, 43 and married with two children, lives in a 1951 house in Golfview. He recently renovated it, with design suggestions from Saldana, giving the interior a mission and arts and crafts makeover.

Though the distinctive Rojo sign didn't appear in his front yard during construction, Glisson is confident that his company's work speaks for itself as Rojo makes inroads into South Tampa.

"We've never let our individual egos get in the way,'' he said, "so that Rojo can go forward and it's not dependent on any one of us.''

[Last modified March 16, 2006, 12:12:42]